The Crimson Void
by Dandy Mandy
Summary: Syaoran has been lost to a mysterious magical vortex. After ten years of restless nights and grief over the loss of her true love, Sakura has been given a second chance...to bring her Syaoran back.Oneshot, SS


The Crimson Void

**Author's note/Disclaimer:**

First and foremost, a very special thankyou to Syaoran .K.a.w.a.i.i and Sakura Song, my first reviewers for "Epilogue", your kind encouragement is the reason for my posting this other fic of mine.* Dandy Mandy sniffs appreciatively … the emotion of it all!!!* 

To any other who has kindly posted reviews- I love you all!!

And now to commence with the formalities…*hem hem* I do not own Card Captor Sakura or any of the characters, again, I am but a lowly fan of the anime and manga of CCS and praise its true creators- Hail Great Goddesses of CLAMP! Enjoy!

love,

Dandy Mandy : )

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She could hear dripping in the distance, somewhere in the dark, the sound of a cool liquid dropping into a vast expanse of water, timeless as it fell. One by one as the droplets burst on the surface of that eerie watery pool, it rippled out gently, radiating outwards, increasing a little more in its magnitude as it moved swiftly towards the dark shore where Sakura stood. Here the little black waves gently lapped the black shore and as it receded towards the ocean once more, left a film of dark water in lonely isolated pools in the grainy sand. On more than one occasion, Sakura had leant down to peer into those pools and she would see her own serene reflection or a vision, sometimes of the past or of the future. It was of course, her dreaming beach, a special place in her subconscious that she only ever told Tomoyo; her best friend or Kero; her guardian beast about.

 Sakura leant down beside the largest pool on the sand, the way she always did in the dreams and touched its quiet surface. In an instant all things were consumed in such a blinding pure light that Sakura shut her eyes. When she opened them she was standing on top of Tokyo Tower, where she had once stood when she had fought Yue during the Final Judgement, defeated him and had been declared the Master of the Clow Cards so many years ago. Sakura had only been a young girl then, perhaps ten or eleven years old. 

The soft rustling of the gentle wind through the trees could be heard nearby and Sakura drew a long breath. Why was she here again? 

"Sakura", a voice came softly from behind her and she swung around in alarm. The voice belonged to a thin ten year-old boy with dark brown hair and sharp, intelligent brown eyes. He was dressed in a ceremonial robe of light green with fine orange and yellow trimming, floor- length sleeves, one slightly torn at the shoulder, and the black and white Ying- Yang symbol appeared near the hem. A handsome leather sheath strapped to his back contained a silver bladed sword with a shiny black hilt. The boy was a sorcerer- warrior and one of Sakura's past. His name was Li Syaoran.

"Sakura" he whispered. His eyes were dark and soulless and though he only spoke softly his every syllable pierced the air, "You killed me."

"No!!" Sakura heard herself cry. She was no longer the young woman of her reality but her dreaming form as a ten year-old girl.

"You killed me," He repeated ever quietly, dark eyes turning down cast, "I trusted and loved you more than anyone else in this world and you betrayed me."

"No!" Sakura cried urgently, "I had no choice, please Syaoran, I could never…"

But Syaoran was no longer listening. He was now staring up towards the fathomless dark sky where a violently spinning vortex was opening, crimson clouds circling rapidly like water twisting around in an unplugged bathtub. Syaoran stepped out onto the edge of the tower platform where he was standing directly beneath the centre of the vortex. He turned to look at Sakura once more and then he actually smiled, a small, warm, sad smile. " I loved you more than anyone."

 At that moment the mass of energy swirling above Syaoran's head suddenly swelled and he began to rise towards it in mid- air. 

"Syaoran!!" Sakura cried despairingly "Don't leave me!!"

He still hadn't taken his eyes off her when the violent clouds finally consumed his body. Sakura fell to her knees and sobbed mournfully. "Don't leave me…"

Sakura jolted awake and found that she was staring into the yellow face of a tiny bear- like creature.

" Kero…?" she muttered and sat up in bed. It was late morning and the dim light filtered softly across her bedroom through a single opening in her curtain. Kero fluttered his tiny, white wings and looked at Sakura with concern. " You were dreaming," he murmured " And… you were talking in your sleep."

" I was… ?" Sakura asked slowly, " What did I say?"

" 'Don't leave me',"

The memory of her dream suddenly and painfully seared across her mind and she quickly looked at the floor before the tears came and Kero would see. Kero, who _had_ seen impulsively floated into the air and perched himself on her shoulder, stroking her cheek with a furry paw.

" Hey C'mon now Sakura…" he soothed gently.

Sakura's shoulders began to shake uncontrollably and she was sobbing quite loudly. 

" He's gone Kero, and it's all my fault!"

The guardian beast sighed deeply and patted her cheek some more. This was not the first time Sakura had woken in tears and it had been close to ten years since his friend had slept soundly. In fact, it had been ten years to the day since Li had been lost to them…Kero pondered on the thought for a moment and decided not to say anything to Sakura, lest she become more upset by it.

The bus lurched to a stop somewhere in the centre of Tomoeda. It was, as all other days filled with people going about their daily business, embracing routine. Men and women walked briskly to work with their briefcases, car horns and music blared, the roller shutter doors of the city stores opened with a noisy clatter as the mannequins were dressed at the windows. It was, thought Sakura as she gazed out through her window on the bus, the good life, the way it was supposed to be. There were no Clow cards or Sakura cards, no gallivanting about the place trying to be some kind of hero, _no magic_. Just living. It was something Sakura constantly wished for, but knew she could never have as long as she lived, for that was the way of the Card Captor. She hadn't always felt like this, but since Syaoran had disappeared…she felt that magic had betrayed her and was the reason she would never see her precious friend again.

"Terrible weather we've been having lately," mused a rather matronly woman sitting behind Sakura, "you'd think that the sun never shined on my street, my tulips are suffering!"

"Yes indeed," agreed the skinny, thin- lipped woman sitting beside her, "and all of this rubbish about animals going berserk all over Japan! I couldn't even get my spaniel out of the house this morning, scared stiff he was, of what I have no idea!"

Sakura continued to look outside her window as the ladies chattered continuously. 

Come to think of it, the weather _had_ been strange, it was becoming significantly more overcast for the past month or so, but the cloud cover was thicker than ever today. Sakura peered up into the clouds through the glass and sighed deeply. They swirled menacingly, black and threatening, like the end of the world, Sakura thought. She closed her eyes and let the gentle motion of the bus carry her into sleep.

She was standing on her beach again, dark waves lapping the shore. The shallow pools glistened in the dark sand like sheets of obsidian. She saw herself reaching out to touch the watery surface with the tips of her fingers. And then, the sudden burst of hot white light. Sakura was standing on top of Tokyo Tower. The wind whistled through the trees and nearby, standing on the platform was Syaoran, staring transfixed at the sky. As suddenly as she had appeared on the tower, the crimson twisting vortex appeared in the sky, increasing quickly in size as it spread out to the far reaches of the horizon, like a great mouth widening in the turbulent sky.

 " Nooo!!" Sakura cried "Not again!" she could see herself running towards Syaoran on the other side of the platform but it was as if she were moving in slow motion and she would never reach him in time. Syaoran had begun to rise into the air towards the vortex. Sakura struggled to run, her thighs burned furiously with pain as she forced her way toward him.

 "Syaoran!!" Sakura screamed as he rose higher towards the mass of churning clouds. Syaoran suddenly looked down at the platform beneath him as if removed from his trance for the first time, "Sakura!" He cried, "Help me!"

His body disappeared into the void and the vortex sealed shut and dispersed.

Sakura jolted awake, her heart pounding furiously in her chest. She looked around quickly, finding herself on the bus bound for Central Tomoeda.

 Reality. This was where she was. 

Sakura dabbed the sweat from her forehead and sank wearily into her seat. She had had the same nightmare several times in the last ten years, each one a little different from the next but ultimately ending in the same way- she had never saved Syaoran.

 Strange however, that she had been having that dream more frequently lately, particularly in the past month or so.

When the bus had finally come to a stop outside of Tomoeda Elementary School, Sakura thanked the driver and stepped off the bus onto the pavement, clean but for the usual leaf litter and curled blossoms. Sakura gazed up at the tall white building of the school with a deep sense of nostalgia. This was the school that she attended as a young girl. She chuckled as she remembered all of the crazy adventures she had had here as a Card captor, of capturing cards with Kero, of the way Tomoyo insisted upon dressing her up in such bizarre colourful costumes so that she could film her on her video camera. Of course, it had been many years since Sakura had been a school- girl, these days she came to Tomoeda Elementary to teach P.E to the children, which she truly loved to do. 

As Sakura stood and admired the silent glistening turrets of the building, her eyes eventually came to rest on the Clock tower. Her heart gave a painful lurch. This was the place where she and Syaoran had fought and captured the Time card together. 

Sakura shook her head as if to dismiss the memory before she was overwhelmed by another bout of grief.

The silence of the school- yard was suddenly broken by the arrival of children through the massive school gates behind Sakura. Chattering, laughing, their little bodies flooded into the sport grounds all clad in their P.E uniforms for the school's Annual Athletics Meet. With a little luck, the rain would hold off and it would be a great day, thought Sakura as she looked up tentatively at those threatening black clouds above.

The day unfolded without so much as a drip or a drop from the rain clouds. Another race had started and cries of excitement and awe reverberated across the yard- the spectators a noisy, wiggly patch- work of colour.

" Will the finalists for the eight year old 100 metre Dash please assemble at the marshalling area, I repeat, will the finalists…." Mr Ichijouji's voice boomed over the loud speaker above roaring cheers of delight. 

Sakura stood at the starting line as the sprinters took their marks. She looked over to Mrs Ohkawa, a fellow teacher standing on the opposite side of the track and with her nod of approval to indicate that the track was clear and the sprinters were ready, raised the starter pistol to the sky.

"On your marks…" Sakura shouted as the nervous eight year olds reared up, "get set…."

A loud sharp crack sounded and the little runners were off.

 But the blast had not come from the starter pistol. Instead, it had come from the sky, from whence the unmistakeable angry rumbling of thunder sounded behind ash- black clouds. Before long the rain began to pelt down furiously and children began to scream in a frenzied mixture of excitement and fear.

"Stay calm everyone!" Mr Ichijouji's voice rang out over the loud speakers, " Everyone move inside to your homerooms! Homeroom teachers please move back to your classes and prepare to do a head count !"

Children, parents and teachers rushed quickly through the school doors, some of the sixth- graders taking the terrified younger ones by the hand and ushering them inside.

 Sakura stared outside one of the classroom windows behind a sea of little heads, also peering excitedly out the windows. The wind howled like a pained beast, sweeping violently across the school- yard, thrashing tree branches this way and that, and knocking over the tarpaulin stalls with little effort. A flash of lightening exploded in the dark sky and the third- graders screamed- and then giggled. 

"Calm down third grade." Sakura gestured softly as the children struggled to stifle their giggling. Suddenly one little girl pointed outside, "Miss Kinomoto!" she cried, "There's a boy who's still outside!"

Sakura followed Tracy's gaze and saw that a little kindergarten boy with sandy coloured hair, probably no more than five years old was standing in the middle of the wind- torn yard in the rain, crying.

"Stay here everyone, I want you to be on your best behaviour while I'm gone." Sakura told her homeroom class and dashed outside into the rain.

The sandy- haired boy looked up at Sakura as she came running towards him. He stared up at her with a bewildered expression on his tear- soaked, rain- splattered face as she knelt down in front of him.

" What are you doing out here, Hayao?" Sakura asked gently, resting a hand softly on his drenched head.

" I'm s- sorr-y Miss Kinomoto, I w- was…" He stuttered nervously and started to cry again.

"Shhh," Sakura coaxed, "It's alright, you were scared weren't you?". Hayao nodded slowly. 

"Well Hayao, I think it's much nicer inside where it's a bit drier, don't you? Let's get you inside!" Sakura gathered Hayao into her arms and ran back through the rain into the school.

No sooner had she set the boy down inside the school doorway with his classmates did Sakura feel her senses jolt. She spun around in alarm and peered outside again. She had always been able to sense a magical presence nearby, but this one was different to the way a Clow card felt when it came near, this was different… and yet familiar.

Sakura dashed out of the school doors again, ignoring the protests of Mr Terada who insisted that it was too dangerous. She ran around to the back of the school where she knew she was out of sight and summoned her Staff. It appeared in her hand in a burst of white light, the star symbol at the top of the shiny magenta- coloured staff glistening. Before long, Kero had appeared beside her, his little wings fluttering in the heavy wind.

"Sakura!" He yelled so as to be heard over the roar of the storm " I sensed magic!"

"I sensed it too!" Sakura yelled back

"I was playing Xylam Warriors 5000 when a window shattered at your house!... Sakura, do you remember the last time the weather was this bad?!" 

Sakura thought for a moment before it hit her, " That day on the radio tower!" Sakura shouted, " When the vortex took Syaoran!"

"Exactly!" Kero yelled, "Sakura look over there!"

Sakura whipped around to see where Kero was pointing. To her dismay, she saw that an enormous tornado had formed on the far edge of the school yard- an enormous _red_ tornado, twisting menacingly up into the stormy black sky, tearing up anything in its path from trees to school benches and exploding them into a million splintered fragments.

"My guess is that red tornados aren't exactly normal weather in Japan! That thing's definitely magic! In fact, it's a time vortex, which would explain the weird weather and all the animals going crazy since animals are so in- tune with nature, and they would have detected the change", Kero explained.

 He then looked at Sakura with an expression of calm determination.

 "Listen carefully Sakura, this time vortex only opens up every ten years or so in different parts of the universe, but for some reason it's opened up here in Japan again. It's important that you know… this time is inextricably linked with the day that the vortex took Li ten years ago…there may be a way to save him, a second chance."

Sakura clutched her chest, her heart racing with a sense of anticipation, with a new sense of hope. She could only have ever dreamed of a chance like this.

 And she was ready.

"It's risky… if you make a mistake you could be thrown into another time continuum…" Kero began, " but if you use the Time card you could direct the time vortex to bring you back to that night at the radio tower when it first opened up."

Sakura nodded, understanding exactly what needed to be done. With a new courage, Sakura ran toward the tornado, leapt into its fiery midst and let it carry her up towards the vortex opening in a rapid spiral. For a time she was tossed around and around the tornado like a limp rag doll in the wind, limbs flaying, but she managed to keep her grip on the staff. Finally she was able to pull her Sakura cards from her pocket without losing any of them. She held the Time card to her staff and summoned its power, "Time card, guide my way back to the past! Release and dispel!". In an instant the Time card glowed pale and images of Sakura's life flashed before her on the turbulent inner- walls of the tornado. They began to play backwards at high speed starting from the storm in the school yard, followed by the Athletics Meet, back to the day of her graduation, to university, to high school…. and finally, to a night she had for so many years played over and over in her dreams… the night when the crimson vortex had first appeared.

 Sakura called for the Time card to come to a stop. The images of Sakura's life flashing on the blood- red walls of the tornado began to slow. She saw Syaoran, as a ten- year- old boy, as he was on the night he disappeared, appear suddenly out of the vortex and float back down to the tower platform. The vortex vanished suddenly from the sky. 

Sakura summoned the power of another card, "Windy card! Release and dispel!".

The windy card glowed pale and bright and the elegant female- form of the Windy spirit gathered Sakura into her long cold arms and swept her out of the tornado. Sakura emerged, as a ten- year- old girl… just the way she had been on the night that the vortex had first come.

 "Syaoran!" she yelled. The boy standing at the other end of the platform turned to look at her. 

"I have to do this Sakura!" he yelled.

 This was reality, Sakura thought, it was just as it was before, and not twisted out of shape as they were in her nightmares, the nightmares that had been spurred by guilt for so many years. This was reality for a second time and this was her last chance to get it right.

 "I can use my body to close the vortex!" Syaoran was saying.

"No Syaoran! That won't work! I know what will happen!" Sakura cried, " I've seen the future!"

"Wha?..the future?" Syaoran looked at Sakura with bewilderment.

 To Sakura's horror the first wisps of bloodied cloud emerged in the sky, circling slowly and yet increasing in pace and growing in size. Sakura could feel warm tears start to spill uncontrollably down her face,

 "I'm not going to lose you again!!" she screamed. She was now filled with an irrational rage, " I don't have time to explain, the vortex is opening! I just need to know something, Syaoran, do…do you love me?!"

Syaoran's eyes widened. He was quite surprised by the question but un-hesitantly answered, "You know I do Sakura, with all of my heart, but that's why I have to…" 

"Do you trust me?!" Sakura yelled to be heard over the thundering commotion above them. Syaoran, though clearly still bewildered, nodded firmly.

"Come to me then!" she commanded.

 Syaoran looked up hesitantly at the clouds that were getting very thick indeed and ran over to join Sakura. 

" How do you suggest we close that thing then?! It'll destroy the world if we don't, and Kero said it can only be sealed with magic power!"

 At first Sakura didn't say anything, she waited until he finished talking before she unexpectedly threw her arms around his neck and pressed her lips tenderly to his own, tears spilling from closed eyes as she did. The expression of slight irritation on Syaoran's face instantly vanished. Clearly he was very surprised but rather pleased. She pulled away slowly and gently let go of him, blushing a little as she wiped her eyes and regained composure.

 " I know that we can only close it up with magic, but your powers weren't enough, the vortex opened again ten years later! I was there!" said she.

" You mean… I've already done this?!" Syaoran was astonished.

 Sakura thought for a moment." I have an idea!" She exclaimed and ran out towards the vortex. She stood beneath its centre just as Syaoran had. 

"Sakura! Please don't tell me...y-you're not going to throw yourself in there are you!? I don't want you to sacrifice yourself!"

" Hopefully I won't have to," Sakura said taking out all of her Sakura cards. " I'm planning to turn the cards into energy and send it into the void"

" But… you'll lose all of your powers… forever ", Syaoran said gently. Sakura looked at her cards sadly.

"I know, but if it will save you and the rest of the world. I'll do it."

The cards began to glow brightly and as Sakura raised her arms they floated magically into the air and circled around her head.

 " Hear me spirits, I command you to obey my will one last time. Seal the vortex and keep my world safe from harm!" The cards glowed a hot, white blinding light and spun so quickly that they merged into one great ring of fiery white light. Sakura used her arms to direct its motion into the vortex where it sparked and shuddered, the forces opposing, clashing. Sakura's arms trembled and she gasped with pain, still trying to hold her energy against the vortex. 

Suddenly, Syaoran came around behind her and placed both of his hands over Sakura's, holding them steady. 

"Syaoran, what are you…?' she murmured weakly. 

"I'm giving the vortex my power too. I know I'll never ever get it back, but if I can save you and the rest of the world… I'll do it." 

He gave Sakura a sidelong grin and she smiled warmly. 

Together they struggled to hold their strength against the vortex for what seemed like a painful eternity. When it seemed that they could no longer support the weight of the cards' energy, the vortex finally sealed itself shut with a violent groan and vanished without a tell- tale trace of cloud in the black sky. The two collapsed and lay exhausted beside each other. Before long, Kero arrived yelling excitedly that they'd done it. Sakura and Syaoran sat up and looked at each other sadly. Clow's magic was gone for good.

The sun was rising in the distance, glowing warm and bright and filling the sky with orange and amber as though someone had tipped a pot of melted liquid gold onto the horizon and it was now spreading throughout the sky to disperse even the deepest shadows of the night with its glowing radiance. Sakura and Syaoran suddenly smiled at each other. They leaned slowly toward each other and shared a long gentle kiss. The sun rose higher, its warmth spreading out to the far corners of the sky. It was the beginning of a new day in Japan. Sakura and Syaoran held each other contently.

The End.

DM: What did you think?!  : )

This was in fact written before I wrote "Epilogue", so the scenario is quite different and more…erm, action- packed?, and though there is less "fluff" in this then my other one, it is still ultimately an S+S. I'd love if you reviewed….


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